Staff Blogs

Ultra-efficient Elijah Johnson earns top billing

Kansas guard Elijah Johnson smiles after a dunk by teammate Travis Releford against Belmont during the first half on Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012 at Allen Fieldhouse.
by Nick Krug

1. Elijah Johnson: Productive in every aspect of the game. Scored seven points on 3-of-6 shooting. Dished nine assists. Grabbed five boards. And guarded the other team’s best player. Johnson was aggressive from the get-go in this one and it paid off with a frame-worthy stat line.

2. Travis Releford: Incredibly active on both ends of the floor from start to finish. Tied for the team lead with 17 points, most of which came off of breakaway dunks, including a reverse jam that people will remember.

3. Ben McLemore: Just your typical night for the red-shirt freshman. Knock down a few threes (4-of-5), toss in a couple of highlight dunks and lead the team in scoring. Yaaaawnnn. The amazing thing here was McLemore tied for the team lead with 17 points on just seven shots, six of which he drilled.

4. Andrew White III: Unfortunately for him, his best night of the season came on a night when three of his teammates were out-of-this world good. Still, White’s 15 points in 10 minutes was a real bright spot.

5. Jeff Withey: Delivered a couple of monster dunks off sweet feeds from teammates and blocked five shots.

6. Kevin Young: Received another start — his sixth of the season — and delivered eight points, a team-best six rebounds and his usual good energy all in just 16 minutes.

7. Naadir Tharpe: May have been his most steady game in a while as evident by Bill Self choosing to play him 19 minutes. Tharpe scored just two points but added four assists, three rebounds and a steal.

8. Perry Ellis: Scored a couple of nice buckets inside early and hit three of four free throws but still played just 13 minutes and shot 2-for-6.

9. Jamari Traylor: Ripped down five boards and a block in 12 minutes, most of it coming late.

10. Rio Adams: Missed the only shot he took and did not record another stat while playing just three minutes.

Comments

Interesting that after a FF where we were missing the O-threat from the wing, we now appear to have them in abundance. AWIII's O game never seemed to be in question, so it is really nice to see that he's learned the D enough that CS will trust him for meaningful minutes.